Luca Alinovi Senior Economist, FAO

1. Addressing long term issues in humanitarian crisis contexts: Improving Food Security Analysis and Response Luca Alinovi Senior Economist, FAO

2. Expectations on Addressing Protracted Crises • ECHO Food Assistance Policy, Moving towards addressing short and longer term concerns in protracted crises • Relationship between humanitarian food assistance, rural livelihoods and food security, and • mechanisms and strategies to restore and/or strengthen rural livelihoods and support resilience mechanisms particularly in protracted crises

3. Current limits in protracted crises context • In such contexts, humanitarian responses, in particular food assistance, are often the only available tool for addressing the root causes of hunger and food crises even when they are structural in character and would require correspondingly more structural and longer-term interventions

4. Relations between humanitarian food assistance, livelihoods and food security • Humanitarian food assistance can also be used to protect and strengthen the livelihoods of a crisis-affected population, to prevent or reverse negative coping mechanisms (such as the sale of productive assets, or the accumulation of debts) that could engender either short-term or longer-term harmful consequences for their livelihood base, their food-security status or their nutritional status (see COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, Humanitarian Food Assistance 31.3.2010) .

5. Operational Implication • Needs for having flexible tools to address livelihoods needs, taking in consideration: • Seasons • capacity development • adaptations and changes • results more than outputs

6. Principles • Humanitarian principles are proven to be very effective in driving humanitarian interventions • In developmental conditions, however developmental objectives are the driving forces under which different principles should be applied (sustainability, participation, empowerment etc) • And In longer term crises??

7. Key Issues

8. Issue 1: Institutions Failing institutions and related conflicts over resources are the driving factors of crises and food insecurity.

9. Issue 2: The Policy Environment Informal policy processes and the political environment are downplayed or misunderstood.

10. Issue 3: Local Responses Affected communities are already acting for the long term and not merely waiting for the “emergency to be over”. Yet, mainstream analytical frameworks are hardly ever appropriate in this respect.

11. Issue 4: Delivery Mechanisms Coordination is crucial but rarely enforced. Involving local institutions and partners is the exception rather than the rule.

12. Issue 5: Time Matters The protracted nature of the crises led to a sustained erosion of livelihoods and to structural vulnerability. Several long-term adaptation mechanisms exist - but food systems’ resilience is a concern.

13. Issue 6: Food Security Perceived as a Humanitarian Problem Only Short-term responses based on humanitarian paradigms dominated and had an impact on longer-term food security whilst development paradigms have been applied uncritically.

14. Addressing protracted crises • More than 80% of the current humanitarian funding support responses in protracted crises • the type of needs to be addressed often embraces a mix of chronic and transient/acute needs • often the root causes of these events are a mix of chronic factors and the effects of immediate triggers (natural disaster, conflict)

15. Key messages • Recognising that humanitarian food assistance is part of a broader food security agenda. • Recognising that humanitarian food assistance must be linked to underlying and/or longer term issues. • Recognising that humanitarian food assistance should not take place in isolation and must be coupled with efforts to tackle the underlying and root causes of hunger and food insecurity.